But with AK we need to start being cautious preflop. When we have either KK or QQ we should still do good. In the worst-case scenario, we will have 77.5% to win. Odds change significantly if more players are involved, but at the end of the day, if we get all the money in preflop, we should be happy. While pocket aces are a definite favorite against any other hand preflop, it doesn’t mean it’s guaranteed to win. This is a slight change to Sklansky’s rankings. The Carnegie Mellon group ranks AK above KQs in overall power.

Sklansky also rates these top five hands in this same order. I prefer to play my AK a bit more passively, and I will not be blindly throwing my stack in the middle to gamble for what is around 50% to win against what opponent wants to go with all-in. QQ or JJ, you are a 82 to 18 underdog, AA vs AKs, you are even worse at 88 to 12 underdog. Often it comes down to personal playing style. When it comes to AK, it depends on the opponent we are up against.

With QQ we should be good against the majority, but the tightest people.

While some players play tighter (they don’t play many hands) than others a good rule of thumb is pocket kings and aces are always strong enough to get all the money in the middle preflop. For now, know when the opponent goes all-in preflop, he will have a decent hand unless they are aggressive players willing to bluff their stack. You will be dealt queens once in every 221 hands and the chances a player being dealt pocket aces is around once in every 205 hands, or 0.48 However, this increases. Like in the aces versus kings scenario, the odds of being dealt aces or queens and having an AA vs QQ encounter are exactly the same. I will go deeper into the strategy in another article as it is a massive topic on its own. Odds and probability of AA vs QQ happening.

Aa to 88 poker odds